PCM & Bitstream FollowUp Thread

I understand from the thread below that in order to hear 5.1 surround sound on my home theater I have to set the sound to Bitstream. I also listen to CD's and play my TV and VCR through my home system. I take it that these should also be heard at Bitstram. Why then would my system give you the chice of PCM and Bitsream? Isn't this rather stupid and confusing by them. Is there any purpose of setting the sound to PCM? Doesn't make any sense to me.

The reality is that not everybody have 5.1 surround system in their home. Some still have only two channels setup. So PCM is mostly for two channels folks. This way, when PCM is selected, anything that is fed to receiver will be "mixed down" to only two channels, or only DVD's PCM track (which is 2 ch.) will be decoded.